A Place to Stand

Comments from Scotland on politics, technology & all related matters (ie everything)/"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."Henry Louis Mencken....WARNING - THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS HAVE DECIDED THAT THIS BLOG IS LIKELY TO BE MISTAKEN FOR AN OFFICIAL PARTY SITE (no really, unanimous decision) I PROMISE IT ISN'T SO ENTER FREELY & OF YOUR OWN WILL

Saturday, January 10, 2009

All a matter of grammatical inflection isn't it? When Ukraine refused to pay for its gas Russia stopped supplying it. Ukraine's answer was to steal the gas sent in for through shipment to other countries which, in turn, left Russia with no option to stop supplying gas that wasn't being received

Thus technically Simpson wasn't lying - Russia has cut it off, though it hasn't cut off gas supplied through Belarus, but by downplaying the qualification he & our media generally, are lying.

Russia have fulfilled their contracts & proven they are not "playing politics" with gas. The Ukrainian government are thieves. It is as simple as that. The Ukrainians are relying on the fact that their government is considered a western satellite, coming to power in an election bought & paid for by western intelligence & organised by western psychological warfare teams. Just like Serbia & Georgia in fact.

Were the country stealing from us not our satellite there is no question that NATO & the EU would have been spitting blood. If we were buying BMWs from Germany, shipped via the Channel Tunnel we would not remain silent if half of them disappeared in Calais.

This is all because of a new & pointless cold war against Russia. The whole point of the cold war was alleged to be to stop the Russians having armies in central Europe & instead adopting capitalism & free trade so that we could all be friends & experience the "end of history". Well they did, they did & we didn't. Maybe it is just governments relentless seeking after hobgoblins to keep us in line but there is clearly threat from Russia & no real reason not to trust that contracts will not be kept (at least no reason on our side).

If NATO/EU were to simply say that Ukraine has a legal duty mot to steal our gas & that they should stop doing so then they, being in a minority of one, would have to do so.

If that were to lead to the fall of their corrupt government in what way would that actually be a loss to us? A competent trustworthy neighbour is in our interests as well as Russia's. We should stop playing games. Europe is going to have enough problems keeping the lights on because of our self inflicted anti-nuclear Luddism without making things worse.

It may be cynical of me but I suspect if the pipeline through Belarus, which supplies Germany were not working perfectly well & if it were not merely the weaker Balkan countries being cut off there would be action. A couple of years ago NATO unilaterally claimed to redefine "self defence" as including the right to attack any country which wouldn't sell them energy at a price they liked - that was a threat aimed at Russia (at a time when Russia's army looked less effective than now) but refusing to lay down the law (literally) to Ukraine makes them shifty as well as weak - never a good idea to look both at the same time.

He goes on to say he will, in due course, dig out the relevant studies which means I can lie back.

So next time Gordo announces in the supreme governing body, the Andrew Marr Show (& subsequently in Parliament) that he is "creating 100,000 new jobs" as he did on Sunday, Andrew will be able to say "Oh so you are destroying 250,000 jobs then" (or to be fair a net destruction of 150,000 jobs).

We will also be able to rely on the BBC "News" saying that he is destroying rather than repeating the official mantra that he is, somehow, creating them. After all the BBC has an impartial news broadcaster - not merely an instrument of statist propaganda aren't they?

On Friday the Herald published a disgraceful letter from Bashir Maan, a prominent former Labour Councillor & supporter of our pro-Nazi policies, deliberate civilian bombing & racial genocide in Yugoslavia. The letter was a barely veiled call for "reviving and spreading anti-Semitism" to ensure "this bodes ill for ... Jews all over the world". I wrote

I was very sorry to see the disgraceful letter from former Labour Councillor Bashir Maan on Friday. His letter is an explicit attack not merely on Israel but on Jews & a failure to denounce such words would indeed "bode ill for Jews all over the world" or at least in countries where such people have influence. May I ask where, over the last 8 years, were his call for attacks on Moslems for Hamas' unprovoked campaign of rocket attacks aimed purely at Israeli civilians? Had a prominent former member of the BNP been published by a newspaper calling for the "reviving" of attacks on citizens of Pakistani origin because of the Mumbai atrocity I think the authorities would, rightly, have been concerned about a breach of the law, but the parallel is precise.

The fact is that Israel is defending itself from people who, for 8 years have been launching attacks on their civilians & that it is Hamas, not Israel, which refuses to cease fire. Nonetheless Israel is making prodigious efforts to minimise civilian casualties, even though Hamas is using its own people as human shields. Compare & contrast this with the behaviour of NATO supported by the Labour party of which Mr Maan was a member & also the Liberal Democrats & Conservatives who participated in the genocide & ethnic cleansing of half a million Serbs from Croatia, a million from western Bosnia & 350,000 from Kosovo. Note their bombing was done to support unrepentant (ex-)Nazis publicly committed to genocide (many of them former members of the less attractive units of Hitler's SS). Under our authority they engaged not only in genocide but also child sex slavery & the dissection of living Serbian teenagers to provide organs for our hospitals. Note also that markedly unlike in Gaza, 80% of the people murdered in our government's criminal bombing were civilians. Such actions by our leaders obviously attract far less media attention than Israel's but the facts are indisputable.

Whatever the rights & wrongs of Israel's actions there are absolutely no circumstances in which any British politician who supported such actions is fit to cast the first stone against Israel. Mr Maan should, instead of threatening Jews; acknowledge the Israelis have shown so much more respect for human rights than our leaders..

Adding a personal note "I very much hope in light of "a failure to denounce such words would indeed "bode ill for Jews all over the world"" the Herald will, having allowed this attack on Jews as a race, also permit the publication of this defence. Not to do so would be clearly dishonourable".

They didn't. I did not expect it to go in uncensored since it has been obvious that our entire media are censoring any mention of our government's role in the massacres & dissecting of living people in Kosovo, but they could have edited it - they could have edited it extensively had they wished. They could even have published a letter from somebody else disagreeing with Maan. They didn't. It is clearly dishonourable.

On the same subject I have commented on Neil Clark's site. Neil is one of the good ones & has an honourable record of opposing the Nazis over Yugoslavia. I very much regret he seems to have fallen for exactly the same sort of propaganda which was used to sell our support of the Bosnian Moslem (ex-)Nazis. Our media is, of course, publishing every atrocity story & every picture of children with exactly the same enthusiasm they used to pump up hatred for Serbs.

More disconcerting is the behaviour of commenters on his site who state as fact that"

"The Israelis, on the other hand, certainly want to kill as many people in Gaza as they possibly can - just simply because they are Palestinians."

Though the debate has descended from that point nobody has sought to dispute this factually & indeed the claim that what Israel is doing, right or wrong, is in any way comparable to what NATO did or assisted in in Krajina, the Yugoslav cities & Kosovo is clearly untrue.

That Livingston, Short, Maan, the BBC, ITN, Herald & the overwhelming majority of our politicians & media supported deliberate bombing of civilians in the cause of racial genocide & now criticise Israel for some accidental killings (while not criticising Hamas who are using the people as their human body armour) in a war of self defence does not alter the fact that it is not possible to do so without being a wholly corrupt Nazi. There are decent people opposing Osrael who did act honourably during the KLA war - Tony Benn, George Galloway & Neil Clark spring to mind - & they are entitled to criticise Israel but they must be careful to dissociate themselves from those who are simply repeating the acts of the Nazis. Nothing less is honourable.

Sunday, January 04, 2009

I first heard of Mr Singh Kohli when he was asked to write a Guardian article in which he was introduced as a Sikh alternative comedian, living in London & hence chosen by them as the right person to tell the Guardianistas what the typical Scot feels about the union.

Shortly thereafter the BBC did a Question Time from Scotland in which the 5 guest places were filled by the 4 party leaders (actually Jack McConnell had a stand in) & a typical Scot in the street for balance. Two guesses who.

He now seems to be popping up everywhere & was on Andrew Marr's this morning introduced as a political columnist (in the Scotsman) & cook. Alternative comedy's loss then. His contribution was to say that he didn't know much about foreign affairs & didn't understand why Israel was allowed to attack other countries. Surprising that such a respected political columnist (I assume that unlike many celebrities he does write his own column) is unaware that Gaza has been attacking Israel for 8 years - admittedly with far fewer civilian deaths than they would like but that is what makes the difference between aggression & self defence.

Looking up wikipedia on him I see that he started his career at the BBC on their "diversity graduate production trainee scheme" where he produced the comedy Meet the Magoons which I will admit to never having heard of but the critics raved "woefully unfunny" "once was enough", "your sides will be safe from harm" which classes it as alternative.

Now I know nothing personal against him & am perfectly willing to believe he is a nice guy. He is not the first person to rise to something close to celebrity status with no visible talent. But it is quite clear that his media visibility is entirely because he is something the BBC/Guardian/PC crowd running the media would like the typical Scotsman to be - while being perfectly certain that he will never say anything which doesn't fit their agenda. Not like David Bellamy.

And that is what is wrong with a state controlled media, completely divorced from ordinary people, where political approval matters so much more than competence.

UPDATE 23rd Jan - Last night the question Time MC said that next week the programme will be from Fort William in the Highlands & that the non-politician guest, once again representing the typical Scot will be London cook/alternative comedian/non-political columnist/diversity graduate Hardeep Singh Kohli, for the 2nd time.

What a pity that Question Time do not think there is more than 1 typical Scot in Britain.

UPDATERER Yep he was on with 4 party representatives. During the programme he said that while Conservative MP Teddy Taylor was very good & respected (not least by the electors) he would not have voted for him while he had a breath in his body (or presumably thereafter). Thus, by introducing their "typical" vox pop the BBC achieve balance.

UPDATEIST I have received this from Mr Kohli which is phrased in terms perhaps more restrained than I have used:

hi there. Just came across your blog. Thought you might want to correct a couple of factual inaccuracies.

"Looking up wikipedia on him I see that he started his career at the BBC on their "diversity graduate production trainee scheme" where he produced the comedy Meet the Magoons which I will admit to never having heard of but the critics raved "woefully unfunny" "once was enough", "your sides will be safe from harm" which classes it as alternative."

The training course I attended at the BBC was in fact The Graduate Training Course. It was NOT a diversity training course. The other six graduate trainees were white in terms of their ethnic origin. 1500 people applied for 6 places. I have never attended a diversity training course.

Meet the Magoons was produced for Ch4 some seven years after I had left the employ of the BBC. Your quotes while accurate are selective. There were plenty of positive crits, even from AA Gill and Nancy Banks Smith. The series rated more highly than Peep Show.

"once again representing the typical Scot will be London cook/alternative comedian/non-political columnist/diversity graduate Hardeep Singh Kohli, for the 2nd time."

I do live in London and was forced to come here because there was so little work in Scotland. The issue is about the centralisation of the media in London and you are quite right to rail against that. More media power needs to be decentralised then maybe some of us can come home. I am not an alternative comedian. Never have been. I am not a stand up comedian either. I have written comedy but have never been paid to perform stand up comedy in public. by extension therefore i cannot be an alternative comedian. unless the alternative is never having been one. I also have never been described as a political columnist by anyone other than you. I wrote a column and sometimes write about m politics, but I have no training or qual;ification in politcal journalism and therefore have never been so described. I am simply a columnist.

And i have appeared on Question Time on three occasions.

I look forward to your corrections. I am reassured by your reference to there not being any personal antagonism harboured against me. I realise you are carrying out a valuable public service for which you receive no fee. this is why i am so keen that you carry fact rather than fiction in your blog. I await your reply

BW

HsK

I did indeed rely on Wikipedia for your career details & having previously complained about Wikipedia's wholesale lies about Srebrnica, Milosevic & co am perfectly willing to accept that you know the facts infinitely better than they do. I note also the Wikipedia entry no longer says these things though there is, currently, another unflattering review quote which I will be polite enough not to repeat. I therefore also accept that the BBC programme, whatever it was, was not an official diversity graduate one.

On my main point, that you are not a representative Scot, which is what the BBC presented you as, but a representative of those who control the media who can be trusted to say what they want while being portrayed as a representative Scot I'm afraid I cannot change my mind. That you do not claim to be a political writer, though there is a regular column in SoS & a number of Guardian articles, makes it even more statistically improbable that you would be chosen as a representative of Scotland on a major political programme 3 rather than 2 times (& I first ran across you writing on an article in the Guardian as a representative of Scots just before the earlier QT episode). From memory you were intriduced on QT as an alternative comedian but I grant I haven't seen that used since.

My problem is not just that media control is concentrated in London but the broader point that it is concentrated in the hands of people who will censor any fact & tell any lie to promote state power (which is not quite the same as party power). That real alternative views are completely excluded & people like you used to provide the illusion of diversity. That such facts as the Dragodan Massacre (as bad as My Lai) or even the dissection of 1,300 teenagers while still alive for their organs (as bad as any act of Hitler's) by our "police" are wholly censored by media so keen to give you space. It may be hypocritical but if, next time you are on QT, you accuse Mr Dimblebey & all the politicians present of being personally complicit in these acts of genocide I would be happy to consider you a representative Scot. However I suspect, like Professor Bellamy, telling the truth would mean the end of your media career.

I very much appreciate your comment about me providing a valuable public service - having myself been banned from Guardian & C4 discussion groups I am quite certain there are a number of people there & at the BBC & MSM generally who do not share this appreciation. I appreciate your correction since The BBC generally do not respond when errors of fact are pointed out (or obviously correct them). Indeed the only time they did so was to ask for evidence of the Dragodan Massacre which they had censored & when I did so their communication ceased.

I am also happy to confirm that I bear no personal ill will to you. Indeed I have said worse, on another blog, about recent QT guest Monty Don "as somebody who can be relied on to say the right duckspeak - He duly obliged by being one of the 4 to say that freedom of speech was less important than stopping Geert Wilders getting into the country & by saying that "99%" of scientists support the global warming lie." (in fact no warming alarmist document bears nearly as many signatures as the 31,000 scientists who signed the Oregon Petition saying CO2 rise is a good thing - this has gone unreported by the whores running the BBC). Though this was not, I fear as bad as Mr Devil's Kitchen had already said of him.